Tag: Paul Bearer

Back before the WWE Network, 18 “Monthly Specials” and 900 hours of broadcast television a week there was scant little wrestling to watch. Sure there was stuff like Jim Crockett Promotions/NWA/WCW on the Superstation and the AWA on ESPN but that sort of stuff didn’t really appeal much to children. The WWF, however, had just the thing to meet the wrestling needs of small children across the United States: Coliseum Videos.
These tapes would have a few matches, often “Coliseum Video exclusives” filmed either at house shows or as dark matches during Wrestling Challenge tapings alongside goofy backstage stuff and profiles on various wrestlers. For those of us who became wrestling fans in the 80s or early 90s the Coliseum Videos became an integral part of our fandom, frequently being rented from the local video rental store and watched repeatedly. So when the WWE recently dumped a bunch of them up on the WWE Network, I for one was very excited.

While a lot of the matches on these tapes weren’t exactly five-star mat classics there are some hidden classics as well as matches that I, for whatever reason, thought were great when I was ten years old. Today we’re going to check on what is probably the pinnacle of the Coliseum Videos, 1993’s Smack ‘Em Whack ‘Em.

Fireworks explode and JR and Lawler welcome us to Monday Night Raw. Shawn Michaels is not with them this week, at least not yet. JR gives us a rundown of some of the matches scheduled for tonight and says that before any of that can get underway WWF owner, Mr. McMahon has some shit to say about what happened last week.

We kick things off with a recap of the Attitude Era antics of last week’s main event where Undertaker, dressed as Kane, beat Mankind to become the number one contender for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship by hitting him in the head with a chair. We get our opening theme song and then go live to a sold out arena somewhere in New Jersey where JR welcomes us and assures us that both The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin are here tonight.

We kick things off with some photos from the First Blood match between Steve Austin and Kane from last night’s King of the Ring with JR’s commentary left in place. We see a bunch of Attitude Era run-ins that lead to Undertaker coming down and waffling Austin with a chair while the ref is down allowing Kane to pick up the win.

We get the classic guys fighting in a warehouse as shit explodes and generic hardcore plays opening and then Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler welcome us to Raw as fireworks explode and the cameras pan around the hyped as fuck crowd of 20,000 plus.

Welcome everyone to Monday Night Raw! This is a review of the very first episode of Monday Night Raw. Why? Because WWE had it up on YouTube in its entirety and I, for some unknown reason, decided to watch it. Let’s get to reviewing!